March Baseball in a Great City

COME ON OUT TO A COLD, BAD GAME IN DETROIT

According to the Detroit News, Opening Day tickets are still available. In most seasons, those Opening Day tickets are coveted. Maybe it is that the Tigers' management is suggesting the team is going to be terrible or maybe it is a result of a baseball game in cold, damp, Detroit in March.

Usually Spring Training is a time for excitement and the idea that any team has a chance to win the World Series, but the message coming out of Lakeland is that the big league club is going to suck for a few years. This isn't how you excite a fan base — and isn't necessarily the "transparency" we all seek.

The tickets usually aren't even available until the first Saturday in March, but to meet the demand, the team must have put them out early. The tickets are expensive, no matter where you sit, and with the General Manager lamenting that the team is going to suck, why would anyone want to GO TO A GAME IN DETROIT IN MARCH ANYWAY! Baseball has got to get away from this northern city late March/early April baseball. It just doesn't make sense. Instead of messing with the pace of the game and some of the other ideas that are out there, how about if MLB:

• Shortens the season by playing double headers in June, July, and August. Even if you just played the double headers for two weekends in June and then all available in July and August, that would be 10 days you could potentially take off the season, e.g. start a week later and end a week earlier.
• That's still not enough, because somehow the season has to be done by the middle of September, so the playoffs can begin and World Series can be finished by October 15. Sure, I would love to watch the Tigers play on my birthday, but that would be way to cold!
• Find a way to lower the prices so more people can attend games. Baseball, basketball, hockey, and football pro games are priced out of sight these days. With the entertainment systems people can put in their houses now, it almost makes sense to stay home and watch the game in your living room and make your own hot dogs.
• Don't have a General Manager telling everyone you're going to suck. It might not be true. In pro sports, you're supposed to act like you want to win …